MISSOURI. 



560 





tupremacy of the principles which they embody, in 

 tin- administration of public attain. 



There were no State officers to be chosen. 

 A spirited canvass was inude by the Democrats, 

 who effected a thorough organization through 

 what were called Conservative Clubs, but the 

 Republicans displayed little activity. At the 

 election, on the 7th of November, the whole 

 number of votes cast for presidential electors 

 was 164,778. Of these, 112,178 were for the 

 Democratic, and 52,605 for the Republican 

 ti.'k.-t, making the majority for the former 

 69,568. The six members of Congress chosen 

 were all Democrats. The Legislature of 1877 

 rniiMsts of 26 Democrats and 11 Republicans 

 in the Senate, and 97 Democrats and 19 Re- 

 publicans in the House; Democratic majority, 

 15 in the Senate, 78 in the House, and 93 on 

 joint ballot. 



A committee of the United States Senate 

 was in the State for several weeks during the 

 summer, making an investigation into the cir- 

 cumstances of the election of 1875. Majority 

 and minority reports were made to the Senate 

 early in the session of 1876-'77. 



MISSOURI. The assessed value of property 

 in the State of Missouri is $600,000,000. The 

 bonded debt of the State on the 1st of Janu- 

 ary, 1877, amounted to $17,248,000, of which 

 $3,026,000 belonged to the school and semi- 

 nary funds. The debt has all been funded in 

 six per cent, bonds, and the annual interest- 

 charge is reduced to $1,034,880. Twenty cents 

 on the hundred dollars of taxable property, 

 and one-half the proceeds from merchants' li- 

 censes, are set aside annually for the interest 

 and sinking funds. The rate of taxation for 

 all State purposes is forty cents on each hun- 

 dred dollars of valuation. 



The principal of the State school-fund at 

 the beginning of 1877 was $2,909,974.61, an 

 increase of $286,280.91 in two years. The an- 

 nual income from this, distributed for the 

 benefit of public schools, is $174,598.47. The 

 seminary-fund was $122,000, an increase of 

 $13,300 in two years. 



The State penitentiary has been considerably 

 enlarged during the past two years. The ad- 

 ditions include a brick cell-building for men, 

 which will accommodate 640 inmates, a cell- 

 building for women capable of holding 146, 

 and a hospital which will accommodate 100 pa- 

 tients. The penitentiary is now capable of re- 

 ceiving 2,000 men and 167 women, and the 

 actual number of inmates at the close of the 

 year was 1,333. The institution was surren- 

 dered by the lessees to the inspectors on the 

 22d of November, 1875, and it is now in the 

 hands of the State, with no profitable employ- 

 ment for a large portion of the convicts. 



The Republicans of the State held a con- 

 vention at Jefferson City on the 24th of 

 May, to choose delegates to the National Con- 

 vention of the party, and appoint an Exec- 

 utive Committee to direct the canvass of the 

 year on their behalf. The following was 



adopted as on expression of the sentiment* 

 of the party : 



We, the Republicans of Missouri, in convention 

 assembled, declare our principles HH follows: 



1. We arc for the unity of the nation and the ju*t 

 rights of the States; for full reconciliation and en- 

 during harmony of all sections ; for the inviolate 

 j. reservation of the results of the war, arid the consti- 

 tutional rights of every citizen; for grateful recogni- 

 tion of the services or the brave soldiers of tin- n - 

 public} for thorough retrenchment and reform; for 

 unsparing pursuit, exposure, and punishment; of pub- 

 lic frauds and official dishonesty ; for maintaining un- 

 tarnished the national credit and honor; for sound 

 currency of coin, or paper convertible into the same, 

 and for common schools absolutely free from secta- 

 rian influences. 



2. We charge the Democratic party with being 

 the same in character and spirit as when it sympa- 

 thized with treason ; with making its control of the 

 House of Representatives the triumph and oppor- 

 tunity of the nation's recent foesj with reasserting 

 and applauding in the national capital the sentiment 

 of unrepentant rebellion ; with sending Union soldiers 

 to the rear and promoting Confederate soldiers to the 

 front ; with deliberately proposing to repudiate the 

 plighted faith of the Government ; with being equally 

 false and imbecile upon the overshadowing financial 

 question ; with thwarting the ends of justice by its 

 partisan mismanagement and obstruction of investi- 

 gation ; with proving itself through the period of its 

 ascendency in the Lower House of Congress utterly 

 incompetent to administer the government. And we 

 warn the country against trusting a party thus un- 

 worthv and incapable. 



3. Without regard to past differences we cordially 

 invite all who believe the direction of the General 

 Government should not pass into the hands thut 

 sought to destroy it, and who seek a pure and eco- 

 nomical administration by honest and capable officers, 

 to unite with us in fraternal and considerate cooper- 

 ation for the promotion of those ends. 



STATE SEAL OP MISSOURI. 



The following additional resolution, sub- 

 mitted by one of the delegates, produced a 

 warm discussion, but was adopted by a vote of 

 about three-fourths of the convention : 



We, the Republicans of Missouri, in convention as- 

 sembled, declare anew our faith in the patriotism and 

 integrity of U. S. Grant, President of the United 

 States, and remember with gratitude his distinguished 

 service in the preservation of the Union ana of the 

 civil administration of the Government. 



The convention of the Democrats for simi- 



